Converter's Notes: Assassin needed something to make him more than just The Badass in a Combat Suit, so I've modified him to be more along the lines of Wesley Gibson from Wanted. In this incarnation (Ultimate Assassin, perhaps?) Collins has preternatural ability with all kinds of firearms. In his hands, any gun has the power of a .357 Magnum Desert Eagle, the penetration of a FMJ .50 cal sniper, the cyclic RoF of a Cz71 Skorpion and unlimited ammo. In short, every action scene with Assassin should look like a John Woo movie.

Although he can hold his own on the defensive in hand-to-hand, the vast majority of his abilities only work when he's armed. Collins is simply never without a score of pistols, SMGs, and derringers secreted about his person, so the only way to disarm him is to completely strip him and tie him up. Without his guns, Collins is much less effective, but it's hard to keep him unarmed for long.

ComplicationsMute, Sense of Honour (will not allow anyone to be killed or seriously injured in the course of her duties), Psychic Feedback through Communication or Telelocation Link

Converter's NotesPsi-Storm is a good example of what I call the Sapir-Whorf theory of RPGs: open-ended point-buy systems don't let you build "any kind of character you want!", they channel you into building the kinds of characters that the point system makes easy. If I weren't trying to mimic the way Psi-Storm was originally defined for V&V, I'd never have bothered with trying to figure out how to pay for Flawed Extras.

For her DCA incarnation, I've rolled all her telepathic/empathic powers into one big array. Her Mental Telepathy allows her to scan for minds, and do the Jean Grey psychic switchboard trick (the 3E description for Communication strongly implies that this comes free with the power, but it's enough of a signature that I think it ought to cost a point, hence the Feature). Two-Way Communication is a +1 Extra I made up because "Mind Reading, Communication Dependent" costs the same and frankly the fact that Communication is one-way by default has always been dumb. DCA is silent on the topic of what constitutes a mental sense, so in order for her Perception attacks to work, her Communication is considered an Accurate, Acute Mental Sense. Similarly, her Perception Range Mental attacks are all Indirect, or else she can't use them through the Telelocation link.

Although Remote Sensing has a Feedback Flaw, it applies to all damaging effects, not just Mental ones, so I've made it a Complication instead - she can be attacked through either Power by either a target or someone also in psychic contact with her target.

Psi-Storm still has a serious glass jaw, but at least she's started wearing body armor.

Although there's a lot to like in 3E, there's also a lot that screams "unprofessional rush job". So much so that I've been slowly meandering off the reservation for some time now. The ATT community's fragmenting badly over the new edition and it's been going downhill for a while anyway - the openness and mutual support has been replaced with a loudmouthed echo chamber dominated by a handful of aggressive posters. GR clearly doesn't want to expend any resources dealing with this, and their interactions with the ATT community over the last few years are giving off more than a faint whiff of contempt.

Bah, whatever. I was playing RPGs for a decade before there even was a WWW. I was digging through some old gaming notebooks on the weekend with old Champs and V&V campaign notes and characters and adventure ideas I never got around to running, and damned if the juices didn't start flowing again. I actually felt like writing up some of those old original characters as Ultimate versions, with a more Modern Age feel.

And then I picked up DCA. I didn't make it past the Attributes section. Fighting and Dexterity still don't make sense as Attributes, there's still no benchmarks for what any of these numbers mean and after two and a half editions, they still haven't fixed the fact that no one who cares about points would buy Attributes anyway. And it just went downhill from there.

I'm not going to leave with a bitter flounce, dissing all the haters who've been keeping me down, man; that's just childish. I think GR's bitten off way more than they can chew with the DCA license and I hope they can recover from it. But for now, Wild Talents is calling. It works better for me than 2E or 3E did, and there's something cathartic about rolling big handfuls of dice.

Sir, as someone who has both agreed and disagreed with some of your arguments, I have to say, I'm a little sorry to see you ride off into the sunset...for however long. I usually manage about a week, but, that's just me. Anyway, you've always had some of the most insightful arguments and I think that will be missed amidst a great deal of virtual stone throwing.

Enjoy youself, has always been my motto for whatever game I'm playing...so, if other products are what bring you enjoyment now...then that's where you should be. Drop on in if you're ever back in this virtual neighborhood.

Horsenhero wrote:Sir, as someone who has both agreed and disagreed with some of your arguments, I have to say, I'm a little sorry to see you ride off into the sunset...for however long. I usually manage about a week, but, that's just me. Anyway, you've always had some of the most insightful arguments and I think that will be missed amidst a great deal of virtual stone throwing.

Enjoy youself, has always been my motto for whatever game I'm playing...so, if other products are what bring you enjoyment now...then that's where you should be. Drop on in if you're ever back in this virtual neighborhood.

I agree with Horsen here, I hate to see people going away, but I understand your feelings, I have problems too with this new edition and no matter how much I try to reread it it simply doesn't cut the deal. Anyway I'lll stick around and see if I can kep up with 2E builds in spite of my recent creativity crisis.

I think the problem's fixable, but GR obviously won't unless they're prepared to abandon 3E in its crib. I'm curious as to whether the wording of the new Super-Powerered by M&M license will meaningfully prevent a third party from revising 3E to something people like and selling it.

daniel_ream wrote:I think the problem's fixable, but GR obviously won't unless they're prepared to abandon 3E in its crib. I'm curious as to whether the wording of the new Super-Powerered by M&M license will meaningfully prevent a third party from revising 3E to something people like and selling it.

Given that I'm working on a third party M&M handbook that will be very interesting to see.

I suppose I might as well throw my opinion into the ring here, for whatever it's worth; while I've been certainly been keeping a watch on the M&M boards and on company developments, I haven't posted in the last few months because, well, I just don't have much that's complimentary to write. My read-through on DC Adventures has resulted in a conclusion that this simply is not a system that I want to work with in terms of creating or running characters; the inclusion of MEGS system elements, while it certainly makes a nice segue for those who worked with the DC Heroes game back in the day, has a number of problems when it comes to dealing with characters from other companies and/or systems (and, consequently, character-build concepts) that don't fit these parameters. I also agree with daniel_ream's statements regarding point expenditure on attributes, and that eternally puzzling Agility/Dexterity split and turning Fighting into an attribute in and of itself.

I offer all my hopes that the M&M system thrives and prospers, whatever its form; if there's a 3.5 or 4e coming out in the future that discards aspects that I've found problematic, I'll certainly be coming back to it. But with having spent x-hundred bucks on pretty much every hardcopy 2e resource there was - and enjoying the hell out of pretty much all of them - not to mention more than a few of the online resources, I have no intention of restarting a collection with a system that I'd pretty much be doing a rework into (a somewhat modified) 2e with anyway.

I will still be keeping a watch on the boards and on the game's work-in-progress developments; however, as far as 3e is concerned, I have to be honest and state that I've called it a day with the current system.